last month, the government asked the united nations for help, and the un is currently investigating the possibility of an african-led force made up of 3000 soldiers from neighboring countries to battle the islamists. >> we are joined now by a representative with the german institute for international and security affairs who specializes in north africa. what's your opinion about all of this? what are the chances of an international intervention? >> there is by now broad international and regional support for an intervention that would involve some form of african combat mission, including in northern mali. it looks likely it will happen within the next few months. what it will look like is unclear at the moment because some very important questions are yet to be answered, such as which countries will send troops and who will actually finance the operation. it looks most likely that it will be the european union. >> do you see any possibility of a negotiated solution to this dispute? can you even get the no. factions to the table right now? >> and exclusively negotiated solution, i do no